The Absent Sea

The first of Chilean writer Franz's works to be translated into English, this sprawling, compassionate novel grapples with the consequences of the 1973 coup in Chile, presenting a strikingly clear-eyed vision of historical trauma. Laura Larco, once the youngest judge in the history of the Chilean justice system, fled the country after the coup and has lived for 20 years in Berlin, where she established herself in a university philosophy department. As the book opens, Laura has returned to Pampa Hundida, where she served as the magistrate after the coup, prompted by a question from her idealistic daughter, Claudia%E2%80%94Berlin-born and now living in Chile%E2%80%94who wants to know where Laura was "when all those horrible things were taking place." Laura's return and reassumption of a recently vacated judgeship coincides with a renewed attempt to expose long-buried crimes, especially those of Maj. Mariano C%C3%A1ceres Latorre, the former commander of a prison camp near Pampa Hundida who has a history with Laura. The narrative is divided between Laura's present-day journey and her account of the past, and once the two accounts coincide, they create a tough vision of the responsibilities history saddles us with and offer a tender but unsentimental understanding of the personal compromises that refuse to remain hidden. (June)